My view is that there are a number of factors.
Primarily lack of foresight by ALL governments in regards to future power generation. France invested heavily in Nuclear, the UK didn't. The reasons being wide and varied. The French attitude to development is much more Govt orientated. Take their roads and railways. "We need a high speed railway between here and there, that's the best route, start next week" The same with roads and power generation. Look howxquickly tge magnificent bridge was built at Milleau.
The UK has very complex planning regulations and almost anyone can, and does, put forward all sorts of arguments against just about anything. So you an appeals process, very time consuming, and appeal to the Sec state, very time consuming, a judicial review, very time consuming. So a lot of the time the plans just get shelved withdrawn or the costs don't justify the battle.
Then you have the green lobby, who seem to oppose just about everything if its not deep "green" The UK has huge coal reserves which make electricity generation pretty cheap, but all the mines are now shut, and the last coal fired power station was "switched off" last Monday
We have had, and still have, Govts committed to a ridiculous time scale to "decarbonise" our entire power industry. So huge subsidies are being paid to solar farm developers and wind turbines companies, most of who are foreign owned, so the profits and dividends don't benefit tge UK population. All of those subsidies are lumped on energy bills (and the subsidy then has VAT added to the consumers end)
The Germans have switched off their nuclear power stations BUT are now using coal again from beyond vast open cast coal mines.
The Americans have access to vast amounts of oil and gas on home soli. The UK has oil and gas under the North Sea, but the Govt refuses licences to develop any new sources, and taxes very heavily the existing ones, those taxes are ultimately paid by the consumer (with VAT added as a final insult)
The UK has shale gas, the Govt won't permit its extraction., instead we ship kn vast amounts of wood from Canada to burn at Drax to produce electricity. Difficult to see how that can be viewed as contributing to "decarbnisation" let alone on financial cost!
But if theme isn't there?
It is a highly complex subject, and I am sure others will agree/disagree with some of my points, but I think the biggest "issue" is many years of zero foresight and reluctance to invest, be that private or public money.
Hinckley C is, I believe, being (almost) entirely financed by sources outside of the UK, and they wil expect a healthy return on their capital, and that will have to be paid by the UK consumers.
As for how to reduce our costs, I really don't think we can now!! So invest in rooftop solar panels and battery storage. That's what I have done, but the payback period is not short, but as energy prices increase the savings do tge same, so tge payback period reduces.
Stay warm everyone, and if you have an elderly neighbour, please keep an eye out for them over the winter won't you?